Our Kids

Our Volunteers

 Our hands on-team is made up of the full and part time voluntary staff who keep the sanctuary running and look after the administrative side of things. Many of our staff are young volunteers, who are therefore members of the 'Care Committee'. They do all yard duties, making sure that each animal is cared for according to their own individual needs. 

The Care Committee

The heart beating at the centre of Shy Lowen is the Care Committee. The Committee is made up of the volunteer kids and young people, aged between 11 and 18 years old. The more experienced kids teach the less experienced. They learn our basic principles of non-violence and understanding, of mutual support, inclusivity and team work. 

They meet once a month, when they discuss and decide on what they need to be doing in the coming month or months. This might be a training plan for a particular horse, how to structure their work, a particular issue that has arisen or who is going to do what for one of the forthcoming fundraising activities.

The Care Committee is also involved in the administration of the sanctuary, including funding, website maintenance and general promotion of the charity.

This gives a huge sense of responsibility and ownership, and is part of why each member of the Committee is intensely proud of Shy Lowen and all it stands for.

The kids learn an incredibly broad range of life skills: team work and communications, responsibility, financial awareness, administrative skills... the list goes on.

They have developed a reward scheme whereby completed tasks earn Points which are collected in a book. The Points can be spent on horse riding lessons and other ad hoc activities.

  • Are you aged 11 to 18?
  • Would you like to learn about horses?
  • How about learning our rehabilitation methods with 'problem' horses?
  • Are you interested in helping with the sanctuary management?
  • What about working with the finances?
  • Do you like wildlife and the natural environment?


  • Then come along on any Sunday when we don't have an Open Day between 12pm and 4pm to begin your Shy Lowen journey

Training

At the core of our centre is the need to understand the horse from their point of view, and the need to communicate with them in a way that they will understand. This isn't always easy for adults who have been brought up with horses; our kids pick it up surprisingly quickly.

They also learn how to handle horses, how to groom them and care for them, how to ride them and train them. It may sound strange to some that kids with comparatively little horse experience can be training troubled horses but our sound training philosophy and support structure enable them to achieve astonishing results.

Open Days

You can see our volunteers in action at our open days, when they perform in ridden displays.

Other Volunteers of all Ages

We also have a core of older volunteers who have come up through the ranks, starting as volunteers and care committee members before moving on to more responsible roles. 

Ellie Jones has gone on to become one of our trustees, while other older volunteers such as Elisha Ormrod and Beth McGhee also provide invaluable support to younger team members and to the sanctuary as a whole.

We have, of course, also attracted many volunteers who have come to Shy Lowen as adults. 

Their names are too numerous to mention but we thank them all. 

Whether they spend a couple of hours helping around the yard from time to time, come weekly for specific tasks, or just keep the cogs moving in the background by providing administrative (and moral!) support, we couldn't do it without them!

If you are over 18 and would like to help please get in touch and let is know when you'd like to join in
The best thing about Shy Lowen ....
 Meeting new people, meeting the animals and geting involved
 Seeing the horses and ponies and helping out
 The horse are lovely and the staff. It is a brilliant horse sanctuary
 Getting to work with the horses and learning new things
 We always make sure we don’t cause pain to our horses
 Get to work with the horses
 The beds
 Doing demos
 The way we treat the horses
 Learning new things
 The horses
 Learning about loads of things
 All the horses are safe, saved from 
 All the horses are well looked after and that they have come out of the things 
that have happened to them in the past
 It gives horses a second chance
 The summer and the horses
 Horses are rescued and given a better life with nothing to worry about
 The horses and the people who attend
The worst thing about Shy Lowen ....
 All the mud
 The mud
 No mud
 The mud
 The water
 The mud
 The drainage needs improving
 Mud in winter
 Hay nets
 Cold weather
 The mud
 Nothing
 Nothing bad!
 Nothing everyone is great


Anything else ....?
 I would like to do more jobs and help more
 Advice – send posters out and spread the word about this place
 The round pen has some bars broken and the wooden fences break easily